June 29: Alto Solo

I was asked by the conductor of the Ipswich Summer Band to play a solo for one of the concert pieces, an arrangement of "Strangers of the Night" by Frank Sinatra. I said yes, especially because the song is slow and the solo is a familiar tune and contains no sixteenth notes or anything crazy. Tuesday was our first group practice, and we ended with playing my solo song. I messed up one note at the beginning (stupid F natural) but otherwise, I think I played fairly well. I realized this was the first time I have ever played a solo for an entire song accompanied by an entire concert band. It really was a delightful experience, and I am thankful that I was asked and trusted to do this. I will definitely be practicing this like crazy so I am super comfortable and familiar with the song before the concert, but I have high hopes (and surprisingly a good amount of confidence) that I will do just fine. And of course, for the rest of the concert I am playing Alto Sax 1, just like in the Rockport Legion Band. While I very much miss playing Bari Sax in these groups, it is a fun new experience to be playing such technically challenging melodies (bari sax parts, admittedly, are super easy). It's also different to be listening for the clarinets to match their part (as a bari sax player, I am used to listening for the trombones and tubas). All of these volunteer community bands are finding difficulty in building themselves back up after the pandemic, and I am happy to help out with instrumentation to play Alto Sax (I was the sole sax player in the Ipswich band last night, and supposedly one more will be joining me for the concert). It is just delightful to be playing any kind of music right now, in any group, playing any instrument I can!

For the record, the Ipswich concert is Saturday July 24 at 4pm at the Ipswich common. 🎵

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 28: Re-Discovery of Music Library

A project I have embarked on the fast few days was transferring all of my files from my old laptop and my back up drive to my current computer, organizing them (and most importantly deleting all kinds of duplicates), and them re-backing up the new set of ALL of my files. It has been quite the project, but I finally managed to complete it. One of the most delightful parts of this process has been re-discovering my music library. Since I now subscribe to Spotify, I have had no need to listen to my actual music files, but 10 years ago, I had (and still apparently have), an extensive music collection, over 5000 songs, or about 250 hours worth of music, that I had totally forgotten about and neglected. 

Certain songs I "re-discovered" brought me right back to very distinct memories of when I used to listen to them. Music has always had this distinct ability to connect me to memories. 

The most recent example of this were the songs "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes and  "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" by Sufjan Stevens (or more accurately, the entire albums those songs are on). I was a 2010 Census Worker and I was in my car a lot, driving around collecting people's information for the census. At that time, a friend has just given me a bunch of his CDs to rip, including Sufjan Stevens and Fleet Foxes, which I uploaded to my phone and listened to on repeat in my car while census taking. These songs bring me right back to the car on a warm sunny day knocking on doors, meeting strangers, feeling independent (I had just recently broken up with my fiancé at the time) and strong and hopeful for the future. It amazes me how viscerally the music invokes these memories. I am delighted to have "found" this music, and I look forward to rediscovering more of my collection, and experiencing all the accompanying memories attached to it.

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 27: Puerto Rico Expansion

 As I mentioned in an earlier post, I discovered the one of my favorite games, Puerto Rico, had two expansions that I of course had to purchase, and they arrived for us to try out at board game night on Sunday. We started with expansion #1, which added some fun new buildings and a new Forest plantation. I preselected which buildings to start the game with, a mix of the old and the new for us to get a handle on how the new buildings operate, but next time we play, we will do what the game recommends and have all the players take turns picking which buildings should be included in the game as a part of the set up of the game (which sounds very exciting). The new buildings all had great mechanics (for example, "Black Market" allows you to trade in a colonist, a point token, and/or a resource token to spend as money, and the "Library" allows you to double your role privilege) which definitely effected the game play, so much so that for the first time ever, the end of the game was triggered after all the point tokens were gone, instead of the usual way, which is when all the colonist tokens are gone. And of course the newbie player won (since he was getting advice from all of us for what to do) with 43 points, I got second place with 40, two people tried for third with 39 points, and last place had 36 points, all a ridiculously high and close scoring. It was a delightful experience to see how much just a few new buildings and mechanics could so drastically effect the game play, and I am excited to try expansion #2 which adds a new "Noble" token and a bunch buildings and points opportunities related to the Nobles. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 26: Successful Fellowship Campaign

Our five-some fellowship team for Journeys in Middle Earth (JIME) (the Lord of the Rings cooperative game) gathered on Saturday for our final two adventures of our first campaign. We had a battle map to fight Gulgotar and an incredibly extensive and ever growing journey map to find and to fight Atarin. Both adventures were seemingly much easier than previous adventures we have done, and we delightfully won both, and thus won the campaign (even though we killed one of our heroes, Legolas, right before we defeated Atarin. Oops!)! 

As I have said before, it has been a delight to play this game (I continue to love that it does not rely upon the pure luck of rolling dice) and I look forward to starting our next campaign, especially now that we know how to play and we are following the correct mechanics and rules-- we misread or misunderstood a few rules during our first few adventures, some of which made it easier for us to play (aka we were totally cheating) and others made it much harder for us to play (so the cheating was cancelled out, haha). It was also delightful just to finish such a long campaign-- I once started a campaign of Pandemic Legacy but it got super hard, especially after we destroyed Paris, and then a real Pandemic hit, so ya know, the enjoyment factor of playing a game with a pandemic theme was significantly decreased. It is fun to have a regular group of people gather to play different chapters of the same game, and I'm glad JIME does not have anything to do with a pandemic, or real life for that matter, with orcs and wights and goblins instead of infectious diseases!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 25: The Lost World

I had finished reading "The Lost World" by Michael Crichton a few weeks ago and had been itching to watch the movie, which I had actually never seen, and we finally found some time on Friday night to watch it. From the very first moments on screen, I was indignant--- the movie is all wrong!! All of the exposition to set up the movie is totally wrong. First of all, John Hammond is supposed to be dead. Secondly, Sarah Harding was not in California and flew to the Isla Sorna first-- she was supposed to be in Africa and arrived super late to the island. One of the main protagonists in the book, Richard Levine, did not even make an appearance (in addition to many other characters), and there were supposed to be TWO children, Arby and Kelly, neither of which were the children of Ian Malcolm! Every three seconds, I was saying, "In the book that didn't happen..." eventually resulting in my husband expressing his frustration at my constant interjections which then resulted in us erupting into delightful laughter. 

The movie wasn't bad (it was arguably quite good), but it definitely was not an adaptation of the book; it was only very loosely based on it. The worst offense, in my opinion, was having the T. rex end up rampaging in California-- the book definitely never had dinosaurs in America! 

Interestingly, Crichton never intended to write a sequel to Jurassic Park, but after the movie was so successful, Spielberg convinced him to write one, and wanted him to include Ian Malcolm in it (which delightfully meant more Jeff Goldblum!), even though Malcolm had died in the book. But according to an article in Time Magazine, director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp ended up discarding many of the novel's scenes and ideas, choosing instead to devise a new story while including the two ideas from the novel that Spielberg liked: "the existence of a secret island where the DNA dinos had been created, and a set piece where a T. rex tries pushing a trailer off a cliff after its babies are threatened by scientists."  And apparently, Crichton seemed to be understanding, once saying, "When I write, I have to have the book be exactly the way I want it to be, and that's that. The movie will be exactly the way the director wants it to be. And that's that."

It has been delightful experience to read and watch these Crichton creations, and I am looking forward to many more (apparently, lots of Crichton books have been turned into movies, I'm reading "Sphere" now; the movie adaptation stars Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L Jackson, and though it has received mostly negative reviews I will definitely watch it.)

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 24: Floor Steamer

A pure sign that I am officially in the midst of full-on adulthood: I delight in my new floor steamer! In a lot of TV sitcoms, there's this joke about a husband buying his wife a vacuum as a gift and her being insulted by it. But if I got a nice new fancy vacuum as a gift (especially if it had some cool new features), I for one would be ecstatic. :) 

As you know, my husband and I installed brand new flooring in our kitchen and I have been trying my best to keep it looking new, and to that end, I bought a new floor steamer. It is super easy to use, and provided delightful results. I love the feel of clean floors under my feet, which is especially rare in my house due to cats and chickens and ducks and my husband and the 20+ people in our house each week. It's one the reasons we installed a new floor in the first place and picked a nice dark color to hide the fur and feathers and dirt and rock and all kinds of messes that end up on our floors. A nice vacuuming and steaming on Thursday fixed it all...for approximately 30 minutes... but it was a delightful 30 minutes. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

 

June 23: Outdoors Chores

Since my husband hasn't been feeling well, I've had to take over several of the outdoors chores, and I am quite proud of myself that I did them all on Wednesday. Cleaned the duck coop? Check. Water and food for both chicken coops? Check. Collected all the eggs? Check. Put out the trash and recycling (which has always been my job, but still)? Check. Cleaned out the cooler and other bins that were gross? Check. 

I even did a beehive inspection all by myself (which was only slightly nerve-wracking without my husband there to assist, but I did it nice and slowly and carefully), and I added on a third deep box to each of the hives! Quick update on the hives: Yellow hive is thriving! I spotted the queen, which was delightful, and both of their deep boxes were full of brood, nectar, pollen, and capped honey, with not an overwhelming number of drones (the males bees that don't do anything except eat up the honey stores). Blue hive is doing okay. I still couldn't spot the queen, though I did see evidence of the queen (eggs/larvae), but unfortunately also had to destroy about a dozen queen cells. Apparently this hive thinks it needs a new queen, either to take over for the current one, or to swarm. Because of the high number of drones, I am doubly concerned. They had not yet filled their second box (still about two empty frames) but I put a third deep on there anyways. I will continue to inspect them and hope to see some progress (and fewer, or no, queen cells!). 

It was a delight to get so much accomplished, especially with my husband down for the count. Of course, I can't wait for my husband to feel better, but I am thankful that I am capable and feeling well, and can be a competent homesteader. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 22: Diagnosis

I am not going to go into many details here but suffice it to say, my husband hasn't been feeling well the past few days, so I made an appointment for him to see the doctor on Monday. Before we went, I looked up ailments that fit all of his symptoms, and settled upon one diagnosis that I thought he might have. After the examination at the doctor's office, the doctor made the pronouncement that she thought he had exactly what I had guessed! It was a delightful win for me, and I hope a delightful win for my husband so he can be prescribed medicine and hopefully alleviate the pain he is experiencing. Anyways, that was all on Monday. My delight for Tuesday, though, is related. We still had Magic Pizza Tuesday, with 9 people in attendance (plus my husband who laid on the couch getting his prescribed rest). Of course, our friends asked him what was wrong. Now my husband has always liked to make up exaggerated reasons and stories for his illnesses and ailments. Cat scratched his face? Bar fight. So he made up a hilarious (and NSFW or this blog) reason for his most recent ailment and it was absolutely delightful. Although I feel terrible that my husband hasn't been feeling well, I take comfort in the fact that he was still able to enjoy some good old fashioned dirty minds humor. And hopefully it will help him feel better soon!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 21: Our Very Own Lanai

As I have mentioned before, I have very much enjoyed eating breakfast outdoors during our previous tropical vacations. That inspired my husband to build us a screened in deck to replace the half-built deck our house came with. And he did a great job. It is attached to an entrance from our living room and has two exits to the outdoors. The entire deck is screened in (including under the floor) to prevent bugs from entering (especially mosquitos, because I especially detest mosquitos). It has skylights and high ceilings and a ceiling fan, and enough room for our grill, a patio table and chairs, and a bunch of other random things (including the honey extractor we use to harvest honey from our beehives, because where else would we store it? 😏). In Hawaii, this kind of deck/porch/veranda is called a "lanai". According to the interwebs, "most lanais have enough space for furniture sets, greenery, and even ceiling fans, so they’re a living room that’s always on vacation." Check, check, and check. 

On Monday, the weather was just perfect in the morning, bright and sunny, cool with a gentle breeze, so I sat on our lanai to eat breakfast and read (I'm currently on a Michael Crichton binge, having just read Jurassic Park and the Lost Word, I moved on The Andromeda Strain, all of which have been delightful). I absolutely loved sitting "outside", watching and listening to the birds (including our adopted wild turkey we have affectionately named "Elena", after the Turk in Final Fantasy VII). Fela, our black cat who is not allowed in the real outdoors, seems to also enjoy the lanai; it's like a gigantic "cat-io" (a patio for cats) for him to pterodactyl at the birds (which is what I call the weird sound he makes after he sees a bird. Who knows what pterodactyls really sound like, but I think they sounded like Fela hunting a bird). It's also fun to watch our Ginger cats slinking around the yard, and from the deck we can see the duck coop, the planets' chicken coop, and we can sorta see the beehives, in addition to several of our fruit trees and tons of flowers. It is absolutely delightful, and I am so thankful I have the time now in my life to be able to enjoy this.

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 20: Werewolves

For game night, my friend brought over a new game called, "One Night Ultimate Werewolf" and it was amazing. A 10-minute game for 3-10 players, it is perfect for our big group of friends (especially perfect for when we are waiting for others to arrive to play a longer game). It reminded me of "Coup" but personally I found it way more fun. Everyone picks a random card and looks at it to see what role they have picked. Three additional roles remain face down in the middle of the table, and each of our role cards are placed face down in front of us. Then it becomes the "night" phase. Someone can either read a script, or you can use an app to do the narration (way better idea). Everyone closes their eyes and the narration goes through each role, directing players on what to do. For example, if you are the "troublemaker", you will be instructed to open your eyes, switch two players roles cards, and then close your eyes. After all the narration is complete, the group all opens their eyes and it is "day" phase. You have about two minutes of conversation (debate/argument) to figure out who the werewolf is and convince others of who it might be. After the two minutes are, everyone votes on who they think the werewolf is by pointing at them. If two or more people have voted on someone, they die. If anyone who dies is the werewolf, everyone else wins. If the werewolf doesn't die, then the werewolf wins. The game came with 12 different roles, which provides a lot of variety to the game. (And my friend just bought the expansion which has 11 more roles!!) It is an incredibly enjoyable game and provided over an hour of delightful game play (The seven of us played it dozens of times!). It was super fun to debate what roles we thought people were; some people were really good at deceiving us and were super convincing. I am excited to play with more roles and more people!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 19: 50 (plus 1) years

My husband's parents celebrated their 50th anniversary last year in the midst of the pandemic, so they had to postpone their long awaited vow renewal ceremony and reception. We were all finally able to celebrate on Saturday. The vow renewal was basically a wedding ceremony at church, allowing my mother-in-law to finally have the wedding she was never able to have when she originally got married in 1970. As she walked down the aisle, flanked by her three sons, she was absolutely beaming. I swear it is the happiest I have ever seen her. All her friends and family were there, and during the ceremony, all 8 of her grandchildren (minus one step-grandchild) surrounded the happy couple during their vows and ring ceremony. There was so much love and joy in the room, it was palpable, and delightful. In the homily, the priest kept saying that they were celebrating "50 plus 1 years" and it was perfect, and we repeated it often during the day. 

The party afterwards at the American Legion in Manchester was also delightful. It was the first time my husband and I have been a part of one of those married couples dances, where couples are eliminated off the dance floor based on the number of years they were married. We have only been married 7 years (8 years on September 1), so we were one of the first couples off the dance floor. My husband's grandmother's sister and her husband stayed on the dance floor the longest, having been married for 63 years! I am eternally grateful to be a part of this family, and if it wasn't for this marriage 50 (plus 1) years ago, my husband would have never been born, and I would have never had this amazingly perfect relationship.

With delight (and gratitude),

♥Jamie

June 18: The Whale Jaw

Today was a day full of delight, including accomplishing many errands and having a nice family dinner at the Boathouse, but what I chose to focus on for this blog is our hike on Whale's Jaw Trail, in the Dogtown Neighborhood of Gloucester. It starts at the Greenbelt's Carter Reservation and goes one mile to a huge set of boulders that look like the head of a whale emerging from the ocean and then one mile back tracking to the entrance. It was a gorgeous day, just a tad hot, and not *too* buggy. It took a lot longer to hike in and than back, because I was enamored by nature and get stopping to gawk at things, like little toads, pretty flowers, impressive trees, etc. We stopped at the boulders for a bit to enjoy some snacks and water and a bit of rest before making a quick journey back to the car. It was a nice little trail, and I would definitely go back, especially because there are a lot of other trails that branch off of the one we took. It was also my first time using the All Trails app, which tracks our hiking path on a map and records the time. It is a delightful app, and I look forward to using it for future hikes. I continue to delight in being immersed in nature and seeing/smelling/hearing/experiencing all that nature has to offer. (For example, my husband picked out an Indian Cucumber from the ground and ate it; and I LOVED the smell of the pine needles on the certain parts of the path.) I love that these experiences are practically in my backyard!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 17: Alto Sax 1

Thursday night I attended my first practice of the Rockport Legion Band. I brought my bari sax and my alto sax, because the conductor wasn't sure what he needed me to play because he didn't know exactly who was going to be joining the sax section. When I showed up, there was already a bari sax player (a Rockport High School student), and another alto sax was also in the section, but she was a beginner and played Alto Sax 2, so the conductor had me play Alto Sax 1. Alto Sax 1 is a totally different animal than what I usually play. Ever since I've lived in Gloucester, I have played bari sax in concert band, which is mostly low notes in an easy bass or harmony part. Alto Sax 1 is the leader of the sax section, with melodies and high notes and solos, which was definitely a new and delightful (though somewhat nervewracking) experience for me (though to be honest, in high school and college I played Bassoon 1 in concert band which the led the section and had some melodies and solos, but that was many years ago, and even bassoon sometimes just plays the easy bass lines). 

This was the first time I had seen most of this music, so I had to do a lot of sight reading. Thankfully, I was familiar with some tunes, like selections from Les Miserables (in which I have a gorgeous solo) and Funiculi Funicula (in which I have most of the melody). For not having played Alto in awhile, and never having played Alto Sax 1 in a concert band, I thought I did fairly well, and I'm looking forward to future practices and eventual outdoor performances. It is delightful to play music in a group again (especially because I loathe practicing all by myself!) and it's definitely feeling like life is getting back to normal!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 16: Big Band

I was invited by a friend and fellow musician to join a practice of a Big Band in Peabody. They usually meet every Thursday from 9:30am-11:30am for a line dancing community event at the Peabody Senior Center with 60-100 people in attendance. Of course, those dances were cancelled during the pandemic, but they are coming back in July, so the band was gathering this morning to practice for the first time in over a year. Their former bari sax player unfortunately passed away last summer, so they were looking for a replacement. I attended the practice, enjoyed the music, (played decently well for sight reading the charts for the first time) and have been asked to join the band for when the dances come back next month, and I am absolutely delighted. 

The group is all men (mostly over the age of 60), so I am definitely an outlier as a woman in her 30s, but I never let age or gender get in my way! The music is a wide variety of big band charts (think "In The Mood", "Shiny Stockings", "Sweet Georgia Brown") mixed in with polka, patriotic, and all kinds of other tunes. I love playing bari in a big band; the parts are all fairly easy and sound awesome in the sax section. I am so thankful that I no longer have a full time job so I can partake in these opportunities. While I was there, I was asked to join the Rockport Legion Band, which rehearses on Thursdays and will perform outdoors a few Sundays this summer, and I'm super excited about that opportunity as well. I am about to be playing music almost 5 times a week!

Mondays: Gloucester Community Band

every other Tuesday: Ipswich Community Band

every other Wednesday: Reset Button (my 6 piece brass band)

Thursday mornings: Peabody Big Band

Thursday evenings: Rockport Legion Band

Yay for music coming back, and being connected to these great musicians who offer me these delightful opportunities.

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 15: Five Games of Magic!

We had fifteen (15!!) people at Magic Pizza Tuesday, the most we've had since before the pandemic, so we were able to divide out into five 3-player games!! It's been so long since our house has been this full of people, and it was delightful. The funniest moment was right at the beginning of the evening; I always write the names of all the people who will be attending on our whiteboard; I counted them up and said to my husband, "Oh wow, we're gonna have 15 people here tonight." His response was, "We don't even know 15 people!" Hahahahahaha! We do indeed know 15 people (and we almost had 17 people in attendance until 2 bailed at the last minute). This was one of the clearest signs that life was getting back to normal after over a year of quarantine, and I hope that subsequent Tuesdays will be just as full, lively, and delightful! By the way, I personally was only able to play one game; I played my new, fun "dwarf vehicle" deck that I am starting to call "Mustang Sally" against my husband's crazy new Zedruu deck (his fifth Zedruu deck) that has all kinds of crazy mechanics that totally killed me. Oh well, it was still fun!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 14: Family

This is gonna be yet another one of those bittersweetly delightful entries; I really am impressed by the way this daily exercise of finding delight in my life has changed my perspective on even the roughest, deepest. darkest moments. I have started to intentionally see the joy in every moment, not just the happy ones. 

On Sunday, we found out that one of my husband's uncles passed away. That uncle's son and daughter are two of the family members we are closest to (the son was one of my husband's groomsmen in our wedding; the daughter lived at our house last summer), so I was absolutely devastated for them. We heard that the family would be gathering at our "family compound" (the neighboring houses of my husband's grandfather and another uncle) in Gloucester, and we knew we needed to attend to be physically and emotionally supportive for our cousins (and the rest of the family). 

My husband took the day off work to be there, and I stopped by during my babysitting gig (in the midst of all the grieving, everyone very much appreciated seeing a smiling, happy baby!) and then I came back after babysitting and stayed until late in the evening. It was delightful to just be with family, sharing memories, making each other laugh, eating and drinking and just plain being together. As hard as it is to lose someone, I was grateful for the delightful family gathered together, and I know that we can get through this by sticking together. 

With delight amidst mourning,

♥Jamie

June 13: Puerto Rico (the game)

Back in college, a group of friends and I were obsessed with Settlers of Catan, a super fun board game where you collect resources, build settlements, and try to be the first person to get 10 points. But one of those friends bought a new game for us to try near the end of our senior year, Puerto Rico, and we all fell in love with it. It is much more complicated than Settlers, with many more components and strategies to balance, but at its root, it's the same basic game, collecting resources, building factories and plantations, and trying to have the most points at the end. Of course, I own both of them (as well as a sequel to Settlers called Settlers of America, which I actually like better than Catan), but arguably Puerto Rico is my favorite of the three. It is not a 2 player game so we did not play it at all during the pandemic (however, in just recently googling the game, I found a 2-player variant that we will have to try! wish I had found that a year ago!) so playing it again during board game nights is delightful. We played a 5 player game of Puerto Rico on Sunday, and I taught one of the players how to play as we played. He and I both tied for first (I wonder if part of the reason was because I kept recommending "what I would do" and he almost always took my suggestions. It also didn't hurt that he is also super smart and catches on to new games well.) But it was also a super close game, each of us within just a few points of each other. I continue to delight in being able to have people over at our house for actual, physical game night; I hope that I never again take for granted this seemingly simple undertaking.

With delight,

♥Jamie 

June 12: Finished Projects

We have a lot of different house projects going on right now, and I feel like we are in the middle of all of them with seemingly no end in sight, which slightly frustrating because I feel like our house is a disorganized mess. But finally (finally!) I finished one of them: painting the band room/office (remember, avocado green?). It turned out delightfully. But what was even more delightful than the finished paint job, was putting the office back in order. It's no surprise that I enjoy organizing, so it was delightful to put the desks back and organize them. I even hung a picture I had been meaning to hang all year (a beautiful painting by Will Pottorff of the original logo for Agape Comedy Night [the beer can as microphone], which in itself is another bittersweet memory. We used to have comedy nights in this very room, with up to 50 people in attendance featuring 6 comics and live music. Man, those were the days. But even had I not closed the brewery when I did, the pandemic would have shut those down anyway. I continue to be amazed with the timing of these events). 

Anyways, the finally finished painting and organizing of the office/band room/former comedy night room got me inspired to finish another project-- the kitchen. Of course that really won't be finished for awhile, but I can at least get pieces of it finished, so next up, finish painting the trim to have my husband reinstall it, which requires me to touch up the paint on the kitchen walls, which I also accomplished yesterday, and it looks gorgeous! We are so close to have a beautifully renovated house, and it is delightful.

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 11: Lap Chickens

I go into chicken coop with the new baby chickens once a day to check on them, give them water, food, and treats, and hang out with them to further solidify our relationship. Back when the babies were in the house, I had basically trained Saltina and Munchkin to sit on my lap any time I opened their cage and sat cross legged in front of it . Now, in the coop, I have trained them to sit on my lap whenever I sit in the chair that I put in the coop. They don't stay in my lap for long, as they often prefer to sit on my shoulder, but they are almost always on me when I am in there -- which is delightful. (Fun fact: when I first googled their breed when we got them, the Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, it said: "They are very unlikely to become lap chickens. Whilst they will tolerate being picked up and cuddled they prefer not to have that close a contact with you." Apparently, I can work magic!)

Yesterday when I visited, I sat down in the chair, and Saltina and Munch ended up on my shoulder for quite awhile. I pet them and cooed at them and paid them lots of attention, which apparently got Pepper jealous, or maybe just curious, because she ended up jumping up in my lap and sitting with me, allowing me to pet her. She is of course my original favorite chicken, and Saltina is my new favorite, so it was super exciting and delightful to have both of them on me and letting me pet them at the same time. I love these chickens so much, and I very much enjoy spending time with them, watching them move and interact, even just watching them fall asleep for nap time. 

PS: I noticed Tokena was a little off her game, not coming to me for treats (I thought maybe she was laying an egg or busy in the coop) but apparently she was not doing well because this morning we found her dead :( She and I had recently started bonding, and I am going to miss her deep sounding bawks, her curiosity, her playfulness (especially with the worm filled toy we gave her), and her forcefulness in getting treats. She was a good chicken, and I'm sad to see her gone, but I will delight in memories of her. RIP my dear Tokena. 

With delight (tinged with sadness),

♥Jamie

June 10: Decaf Coffee

One of my recent favorite things to enjoy in the evening is a hot cup of decaf coffee with cream and 1 pump of sugar free raspberry syrup. It is the best thing to have during all these late night game nights I currently host (currently Magic on Tuesdays, Zoom games on Thursdays, Board Games on Sundays, and often Fellowship gatherings on Saturdays). It is warm, and delightful, and delicious, and it also prevents me from late night snacking (and it is one of the few beverages nowadays that doesn't upset my stomach). I really enjoy the Fuel brand (it's the absolute best decaf coffee I've ever had, and I also love their caffeinated "Patriot Blend" which I drink most mornings). It's a local roaster and easily available at Stop and Shop where I go grocery shopping, and reasonably priced. On my bucket list is to take a road trip to the Fuel location in Waltham to get a freshly brewed coffee (probably a latte so I can try their espresso). I very much enjoyed my decaf while leading Jeo-Party on Zoom (it's much easier to drink than to eat while on zoom!)

A bonus item of delight, the first of the new categories round totally stumped the team and they made hilariously wild guesses trying to figure out what category these words belonged to:

Lakes

.

.

.

Lady

.

.

.

Puppet

.

.

.

Painting

.

.

.

Index

.

.

.

...... and the answer is:

.

.

.

Collocates with "Finger" 

(Finger Lakes, Lady Fingers, Finger Puppet, Finger Painting, and Index Finger)

It was absolutely delightful to see them wracking their brains for the answer and to hear all the answers they came up with. (The other team knew the answer right away, so it was also delightful to see their reactions to the other team having such a hard time!)

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 9: The Final Final Boss

As you know I have been playing Dragon Quest XI (...for 112 hours so far!). For the first like 40 hours of the game, you are led to believe that the final boss is Mordegon and you spend all your time trying to find him to defeat him. After you beat him, the credits roll, which is typically a sign in video games that you have beat the final boss and finished the game. However, (SPOILER ALERT), it turns out the game is divided into three "acts", and defeating Mordegon happens at the end of Act 2! After the battle, you discover there is still evil in the world and there is another final boss and adventures to pursue in Act 3! 

So for weeks now I have been playing through Act 3 and leveling up, accomplishing achievements, completing quests, all in order to prepare for this final final epic battle. On Wednesday I finally felt ready to give it a try, fully expecting to fail after my first attempt (most of the hardest battles I've fought I have died the first time (one battle I even died twice). But this battle with the final final boss (Calasmos) wasn't bad at all, and I beat him on the first try (first try!). This is mostly because I had the special "Super Sword of Light", which I received after a super complicated quest that took forever to complete, but was totally worth it and because I used it to remove Calasmos' protection and he was easily beaten. After this final final boss battle, MORE credits rolled, AND the adventure continued! There is apparently no end to this game, and it is delightful! I now am working on finishing the rest of the quests and accomplishing the rest of the achievements, and we'll see how much more is revealed in the game (and how many more hours I spend on it)!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 8: Papaya

I am partial to tropical fruits, especially ever since our honeymoon in Hawaii and our vacation in Jamaica, where we had the most delicious breakfasts featuring fresh fruits, like mango, bananas, pineapples, and papaya. So when I saw papayas at the grocery store on Tuesday, I had to buy one. And during Magic Pizza Tuesday, when everyone else was munching on pizza and junk food, I cut the papaya and gave half to my husband and half to myself. It was absolutely delicious and brought back the beautiful memories of our tropical vacations. Some of my favorite moments from our vacations were those breakfasts, enjoyed outdoors on the lanai or porch, with a cool breeze, hot coffee, freshly grown local fruits, and views of the ocean or the mountains. I'm pretty sure it's going to take awhile for me to convince my husband to get on an airplane for another tropical adventure (Tahiti?! Bora Bora?! St. Lucia?! back to Hawaii?!?), but I do hope that one day in the future we can enjoy a week away on an island together. Until then, I'll settle for grocery-store-purchased tropical fruit :)

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 7: Boogie Stop Spiderman

I spent most of the day arranging a mashup song for Reset Button, my 6-piece brass band. The idea for the song came when my husband played "Boogie Stop Shuffle" by the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble on Spotify. At 0:58 in the recording, after playing an intro and the main melody, they go into a B section and I immediately started singing the 60s Spiderman Theme Song (I was going to just quote a line or two of lyrics here, so I googled the lyrics, and I don't think I ever realized that *these* were all the words!)

Spiderman, Spiderman!
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a web any size,
Catches thieves, just like flies.
Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!

Is he strong? Listen, Bud!
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread?
Take a look overhead.
Hey there, there goes the Spiderman!

Spiderman, Spiderman

Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Wealth and fame he's ignored
Action is his reward
To him, life is a great big bang-up
Wherever there's a hang-up
You'll find the Spiderman!

Ever since that improv mash up moment, I've wanted to create an arrangement for Reset Button. And I finally did, and I am SO proud of it. The Spiderman theme seriously goes SO well into Boogie Stop Shuffle. Of course, it will be a challenging piece to play, especially for the saxes, but hopefully it will sound just as good in real life as it does on Musescore (the program I use for arranging music). It's been delightful to arrange music for this band; next up is an arrangement of "Tetra Funk", a funky version of the Tetris theme song by insaneintherain. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 6: Gouda!

Our Micro-Face Gouda (from NPR's Planet Money) finally arrived (see this previous entry for more info on Micro-Face), and it was absolutely delightful. The packaging is hilarious, with Micro-Face's head perfectly placed on the wedge of gouda, with NPR and Planet Money's logo. I sliced it up to eat with some almond flour crackers, and it was delicious. Gouda is also delightful because it makes me laugh, for a couple of reasons: 

First of all, in an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" ('The Sexless Innkeeper' from season 5), Lily and Marshall invite Robin and Barney over for a couple's night. All throughout the evening, Marshall hilariously tries to get everyone to try the gouda, which he specifically picked out, brought home, and arranged. Afterwards, Marshall thinks the night went really really well, and creates the website itwasthebestnightever.com with a photo montage of the evening (including a funny shot with the gouda), which of course scares off Robin and Barney as being too needy and clingy and desperate. But because of that episode, whenever I see or hear about gouda, I inevitably think of Marshall and his delightful fondness for making up songs and websites, and I smile. 

Second of all, in Dragon Quest XI, you occasionally come across a slime enemy that is actually not a bad guy so you can talk to him instead of fight him.  When he speaks, he has this verbal tic of replacing certain words and syllables with similar, 'slimier' ones, such as saying goo instead of good, gooman instead of human, and slime instead of time. So he says things like "Ooze that? He's so goo to me! And so oozy-gooing! I'm a goo little slime!" The quotes are goobiquitous! hahaha. Makes me laugh every time. So my husband and I have been making jokes about our very goo goo-da! 

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 5: Flowers!

We did a bunch errands today, one of which was visiting Kane's Flower Shop in Danvers to shop for flowers. Specifically we were looking for fuchsias; sadly they were all sold out, but they had hundreds of other kinds of plants and flowers, with several green houses to explore. My husband is absolutely enamored by plant life and flowers, but I also very much enjoy them. And there were some fascinating species of display. Some of my favorites:

String of dolphins (also pearls, tears, and bananas) are succulents with long hanging tendrils and shaped leaves (literally shaped like dolphins, peals, tears, or bananas). Here is the dolphin variety:

Royal Candles is a perennial with large, attractive deep-green leaves and long blooming spikes of deep purple-blue flowers that look like candles. We bought one of these and I hope it stays alive for many seasons. 

Anthurium is a tropical houseplant that has a thick tube shaped flower with one leaf, almost looking like a protective cape, on a thick stalk (apparently it is reminiscent of a flamingo standing on one leg so it is also known as a flamingo flower, but I would have called it the superhero flower).

Celosia, commonly known as “woolflowers,” or more appropriately "cockscomb" is a showy, ornamental annual of the amaranth family, whose flowers look like flames of gorgeous colors. 

Nature is indeed delightful and fascinating, especially with its seemingly infinite varieties, and visiting Kane's was quite the adventure!

With delight (and the aroma of flesh flowers),

♥Jamie

June 4: Jurassic Park

A few weeks ago I finished reading "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton after being recommended it by a friend. I absolutely loved it; it's very different from the movie (which was a delightful staple of my childhood), and delves much deeper into the science and ethics behind cloning dinosaurs. I very much enjoyed Ian Malcolm's diatribes on everything from chaos theory to evolution. In fact, every line of text that I highlighted while reading was a quote from Malcolm. 

• "You can never predict certain phenomena at all, life is inherently unpredictable" (p. 178). 
• "The history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way." (pp. 178-179). 
• "Life is actually a series of encounters in which one event may change those that follow in a wholly unpredictable" (p. 191). [...This reminds me the theory of the multiverse.]
• "Scientists are actually preoccupied with accomplishment. So they are focused on whether they can do something. They never stop to ask if they should do something." (p. 318). 
• "Even pure scientific discovery is an aggressive, penetrative act. It takes big equipment, and it literally changes the world afterward. Particle accelerators scar the land, and leave radioactive byproducts. Astronauts leave trash on the moon. There is always some proof that scientists were there, making their discoveries. Discovery is always a rape of the natural world. Always." (p. 318). 
• "When oxygen was first produced as a waste product by certain plant cells—say, around three billion years ago—it created a crisis for all other life on our planet. Those plant cells were polluting the environment with a deadly poison." (pp. 412-413). 
• "We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet—or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves." (p. 413)

[All quotes from Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]

After reading the book, I told my husband that I needed to watch the movie again while the book was fresh in my mind, because I was interested in comparing the two. I hadn't seen the movie in many years, and it was delightful to watch it again, especially after having read the book. It was interesting to see all the differences. (Caution: movie spoilers ahead, in case you haven't seen the movie or read the book!)

While reading the book, I immediately noticed that the ages of Lex and Tim were flipped for the movie. In both forms, Tim is obsessed with dinosaurs and Lex is a sports nut who doesn't care for dinosaurs, but in the book, he is the computer whiz and the older of the two siblings (while Lex is the older computer whiz in the movie). I googled this, and apparently the reason for the age change was for casting (as I had predicted); Steven Spielberg has promised Arianna Richards a role in one of his films, and she happened to be older than her book counterpart.

Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are not in a romantic relationship in the book, and Grant likes children in the movie (in fact, he LOVES that Tim has read his book and knows all about him and dinosaurs).

There are also a LOT more deaths in the book than in the movie. In the book, the scientist Henry Wu has a much bigger role (and he dies), technically Malcom dies (though he apparently isn't actually dead and comes back in the book sequel), and Hammond dies, as well as pretty much every other staffer on the island (unlike in the movie when most of the staff left on a boat before the fateful night), but interestingly, Gennaro does NOT die!

Hammond is definitely the villain of the book, but he is portrayed as likeable in the movie. He has NO redeeming qualities in the book; he is egotistical and rigid and won't listen to the very wise advice of his colleagues and employees. He cuts all the wrong corners, and definitely cares only about fame, recognition, and money. An especially poignant scene in the book is when Henry Wu suggests they alter the DNA of the dinosaurs to make them tamer, more domesticated, better suited to be "zoo animals" and Hammonds resolutely (and frustratingly) refuses. 

A huge plot point in the book is the fact that dinosaurs have already escaped to nearby islands and to mainland Costa Rica (in fact, the book's first chapters have anecdotes about these mysterious dinosaur appearances and related violence/deaths). And when Lex is up in the tree in the park, she spots velociraptors on the supply ship that was leaving the island, which becomes a huge motivating factor in Lex, Tim, and Grant getting back to the visitor center ASAP so they can alert the authorities to prevent the ship from docking on the mainland and allowing the raptors to escape. (All of that is missing from the movie, but from what I understand, some of this appears in the movie sequel). 

At the end of the book, after the survivors are rescued, the Costa Rican Air Force bomb the island to completely level it and destroy everything on it, and the survivors are basically imprisoned on the mainland during an investigation into what happened, making the end definitely not so cheery as the celebratory end of the movie. (Movie: Yay, we all escaped and everything's gonna be fine! Book: The island is destroyed, most of us died, and those of us who survived can't go home!)

I very much enjoyed both the book and the movie, and I am hurrying through the reading of the "Lost World" so I can watch that movie (which I don't think I've actually ever seen.... or if I have, it was many many years ago and I do not remember any of it). I also need to rewatch Jurassic World, which has a bit more connection to the book.

With delight (and dinosaurs on my mind),

♥Jamie

June 3: Codenames

We did not have enough people to play Jeo-Party on Thursday, so instead we played a few rounds of Quiplash and then delved into Codenames. We hadn't played Codenames in many months, and it was delightful. I had forgotten how much I like this game. I am so happy that someone programmed it to be played online (and yes, I have sent the developer money for coffee as suggested at the bottom of the screen, and if you play, you should too!)

To play, you visit https://horsepaste.com/ and create a "room" (and I share the screen via zoom.) We divide into two teams (red and blue), and one player from each team becomes the "spymaster" for the round. They go to our Codenames room on their device and click the Spymaster button, so they can see which words are red, blue, gray, and black (meanwhile, the rest of us cannot see the colors, we just see a grid of words). The red spymaster tries to get their team to guess the red words by giving a one word clue and the number of words associated with that clue. (for example, if the red words included "band" and "bar", I might say "gig for two" and my team would try to guess which words I might be hinting to). The spymasters take turns giving their teams hints until all red or all blue words are guessed (OR the game immediately ends if the black word is chosen). 

We try to play enough rounds to give everyone a chance to be the spymaster, but it's fun being either the guesser or the spymaster. It requires creativity and thinking outside the box, but also trying to get into another person's head to try to figure out what *they* were thinking, so it's a good way to bond and get to know each other. By the way, it is often SUPER hard to be the spymaster -- it's easy to get your team to guess one word, moderately hard to get them to guess two words, but nearly impossible to get them to guess 3 or more words for one clue, unless you luck out and get like three animals or three city names on your board. You also have to be very careful not to accidentally clue the black word, and I also try not to clue the other team's words or the grey words, which do not count for either team. With lots of information to manage, I find that the game activates many parts of my brain. 

So even though it was sad we couldn't play Jeo-Party, I was delighted to play Codenames!

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 2: First Overnight Outside

Today was a delightful day, including a successful Meals on Wheels route and grocery shopping trip, and a walk outside at Tompson Street Reservation with my husband. It was also our baby chickens' 8 week anniversary of being alive, so it was time for them to stay outside overnight in the coop for the first time, and live outside permanently. I was super nervous about it, but I knew it was time (this must be what mothers feel when they let their children go to their first sleepover or move away to college, or when mama birds kick their baby birds out of the nest for their first flight). 

We waited until after dark, when Tokena, Pepper, and Patty were already sleeping in the coop, then we brought the baby chicks out and put them in the coop one at a time. That was harder than I had imagined, because they were scared and would not leave my hands as I tried to put them down. They also started flying up to sit on my shoulders, and Saltina even nestled up in the crook of my elbow, yearning for me to stay. They were also all making this horribly sad peeping sound, alerting me that they were unhappy and scared. But ultimately, we had to let them go. I knew they were safe in the coop and that they would be fine just fine; I had to let them cry it out. We waited 30 minutes and went back outside to check on them, and all was quiet. They were sleeping, no longer sadly peeping, and the sound of silence was delightful and reassuring. They really would be just fine. 

I checked on them again in the morning, and they really were just fine. I will miss having them in my house, but I will make a concerted effort to continue hanging out with them outside to further strengthen our relationship. I delight in their new independence; my babies are all growed up! :)

With delight,

♥Jamie

June 1: Bookcase Installation

I finally finished painting the bookcases so my husband could install them. He spent all day finagling with them, until late afternoon, the project was complete: 3 bookcases and one cabinet with a gorgeous butcher block countertop all installed around our oven in the middle of the kitchen like an island and ready to go. And they really do look amazing. I couldn't wait to put our board games and magic cards on the shelves, so that's how I spent the rest of my afternoon before Magic Pizza Tuesday, getting everything ready before our guests arrived. The shelves I chose for the magic cards coincidentally perfectly fit 40 of our commander decks. And *almost* all of the board games we own fit on the shelves; some lesser known and rarely played games will have to remain in the back room. I am so very happy with the results of this endeavor. Now my husband has to build one more cabinet (and I have to paint it) to complete the island section of the kitchen, and I still have to finish painting all the existing cabinetry in the kitchen. I also need to touch up the kitchen walls so my husband can reinstall the trim. And of course, we need to remove the stupid radiators (which will require me to do more wall painting) and complete the radiant heat flooring. And *then* the kitchen will be complete! Until then, I will delight in what we currently have, especially the spacious shelves and the magnificent butcher block countertop.

With delight,

♥Jamie

May 31: Micro-Face

My husband and I have been listening to this podcast series by NPR's Planet Money called "Planet Money Buys a Superhero". It all started when Kenny Malone, host of Planet Money, read an article about the CEO of Disney, the company that owns Marvel Comics, who said something like, "there is no end to this superhero film empire of ours because we own 7,000 characters." That got him and Robert Smith thinking about "all the amazing minor characters with strange powers now trapped in a filing cabinet in a vault somewhere, yearning to fly free" and the possibility of Planet Money buying one of these unused superheroes and building a little empire around him, with new stories, a new comic book, swag, action figures, T-shirts, lunchboxes, movies, musicals. "Plus, you know, explore the world of high-stakes intellectual property along the way." 

So instead of doing a lecture or interview style story about intellectual property, trademarks, copyrights, the public domain, etc etc. they launched into a real world example and tried to buy a super hero (which has been a fascinating and delightful journey and I have learned SO much!). 

They started with trying to buy one of Marvel's 7000 superheroes, since they obviously arent using all of them, but quickly discovered that Marvel was not going to sell them even their worst character (like "Doorman" who literally can just turn into a door). But professor Jennifer Jenkins from Duke Law School found a loop hole for them. She is also the director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and suggested they look through the public domain for superheroes whose copyright had lapsed. 

Many vintage superheroes were born in the 1940s, and their copyright lasted only 28 years so it had to be renewed in the 1970s. Smith joked, "And, you know, with all the disco and the hot tubs and the cocaine, some small companies understandably spaced out on the need to renew their superheroes." But more likely, the weirdest of superheroes weren't doing so well so there was probably not a great business reason to spend money renewing the copyright of a failed character. Jenkins said "After 28 years, 85% of works were not renewed, suggesting that the copyright owners did not find it worthwhile."

So they looked through a list someone had created of 3,368 public domain comic book characters. It was hilarious hearing them go through the list. Smith says, "This is like going through Tinder for superheroes. It's like swipe left, left, left, weird costume, terrible superpowers, shirtless, left, left." Eventually they fell in love with the 1940s sonic avenger Micro-Face. "He was everything a podcast could have hoped for: super-sensitive hearing, photoelectric vision, and the kicker — a microphone strapped to his face." Technically, because it is in the public domain, everyone owns the old version of Micro-Face. But as soon as they add things to Micro-Face's story, improve him in some way - give him new superpowers, a new identity, change the design - they will own all of those changes and Planet Money would hold the copyright to that new version of Micro-Face. They assemble a team to create the first comic book, and they decided to take the legacy route with this character. The new Micro-Face will be the grandson of the original Micro-Face, who finds his grandfather's superhero mask and takes on the role of Micro-Face. 

The most recent episode we listened to was about licensing opportunities for Micro-Face. The Planet Money team held their own little Shark Tank to hear idea about other businesses partnering with to use the likeness of Micro-Face for their products. After an incredibly delightful episode, they choose a Gouda Cheese and a Lemon Soda to have licensing rights to Micro-Face. I enjoyed the whole thing so much I immediately went online and bought the cheese, the soda, the comic book, and a t-shirt for my husband (proceeds all go to NPR, so it's not entirely just frivolous capitalisms). I can't wait for it all to arrive so I can delight my husband with our Micro-Face goodies!

With delight (and a better understanding of intellectual property rights),

♥Jamie 

May 30: Baby Turkeys

This is another one of the bittersweetly delightful stories. Finding delight in painful moments is challenging, but I also think it is a good and helpful practice. Ultimately, you can't escape pain, but you can perceive pain differently, and try to find joy and delight even within those moments. 

So it had been cold and rainy for a few days. And the day before the rain began, we saw a mama turkey with NINE brand new baby turkeys. Today, we saw the mama again, soaking wet, shivering, and limping-- her left leg looked like it had been mauled-- with only three babies. And the babies were not doing well. They were also shivering cold and soaking wet, and they were having a hard time keeping up with mama. Eventually, each one of them just stopped in the yard, no longer moving, and then the mama walked away, completely neglecting the baby turks, leaving them behind to die. 

I couldn't stand it, and decided to bring them inside to get them warm and dry and attempt to rehabilitate them. I found all three (they were barely moving and basically collapsed on the ground in three different locations in the yard. The mama made no attempt to come back and get them or stop me. There was no way she was going to be able to take care of them, as she was going to be barely able to even take care of herself. We are guessing maybe a fox or other predator attacked them; killing most of the babies, injuring the mother, and leaving the other three babies with a mother no longer able to care or to protect them. Nature seems so cruel sometimes. 

But I, being a crazy human being who tries to fight against nature and bring love to all the world, including the animal world, especially to baby turkeys, brought them inside and put them under our heat lamp in a bed of pine shavings with some baby chicken food and water (we are totally set up to take care of baby turks!). One of them died within the first few hours (I think she had a badly broken leg), but the other two seemed to be making a recovery. They were both standing, with eyes wide open, peeping, and moving around a bit. They were absolutely delightful to hold and play with. I saw both of them poop, and one of them drink and eat a little. I had high hopes that at least one would make it. But right before heading to bed, I checked on them, and one of them had died. Only one turkey left, and I really hoped she would make it through the night. When I woke up in the morning, first thing I did was check on her, and she didn't make it. It was such a crazy emotional roller coaster, and so completely sad to have lost all three baby turkeys, but at least they were warm and dry and loved before they died. And the mama turkey is still around (as of 6/3/21!), still limping, but also still alive! I hope she makes it, and she can try to have more delightful babies again next year. 

With delight (tinged with sadness),

♥Jamie